Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 65 Innovative Approaches in English-Language Arts:
How Two Teachers Teach High School Students to
Use Multimodal Resources for Interpretation of
Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth
Lasisi Ajayi, PhD
Department of Teacher Education & Foundation
College of Education California State University San Bernardino [email protected] Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 66 Abstract
The research objective of this study is to explore how two high school English Language Arts
(ELA) teachers, after receiving some training in multimodal theory and practice, develop
innovative pedagogical approaches that allow students to use different modes, new media, and
social contexts of meaning to interpret Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. The study draws from the
theoretical framework of the social semiotic theories of multimodality that suggests that people
integrate all available tools of communication and the broader contexts of social production of
meaning to make, remake, and transform meaning. Data for the study were collected over 16
weeks from multiple sources, including classroom videos, interviews, observations, notebook,
and teaching and learning artifacts. The findings showed that the ELA teachers implemented a
multimodal approach that prepared students to successfully draw upon their own agency,
capacity, and social interests as classroom resources for analyzing and interpreting complex
cultural texts such as Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.
Key words: multimodal approach, new media, social semiotic theories, remix
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 67 High school English-language arts (ELA) teachers are teaching at exciting times of shifts
in literacy and literacy practices and learning environments characterized by new media
including social networking media and mobile devices that provide youths the ability to
manipulate and transform texts and adapt them to new forms (New Media Consortium, 2005).
The affordances of new media suggest a need to understand the different ways knowledge is
represented in textbooks and digital texts (Jewitt & Kress, 2003). Indeed, the choice of modes
and media has become crucial to the epistemological shaping of knowledge as reading digital
texts brings new resources for textual interpretations. The shifting literacies of adolescents raise
new challenges in ELA classrooms as Kress et al (2005) ask: “ ‘What is the best way, now, of
looking at English? What methodology will do justice to understanding the subject now, in this
era?’ ” (p. x). Kress et al (2005) raise an important issue of how teachers can make ELA
meaningful and relevant to students’ lives in the contexts of social and cultural diversity in
classrooms and the shifting landscape of new media – all important factors that influence and
shape students’ learning.
Literacy practices are an important part of students’ everyday embodied social practices:
that is, ways of communicating (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009; Gutiérrez, 2008). Youths are highly
motivated and engaged in literacy practices such as sending emails, uploading stories/videos on
social networking sites, surfing the Web, blogging, and studying driver’s manuals (Jenkins,
Clinton, Purushotma, Robinson, & Weigel, 2006). New media literacies have helped youths to
expand their creativity and personal expressions, write in multiple formats and genres, widen
their audiences, and write more frequently (Purcell, Buchanan, & Friedrich, 2013). Hence, the
value for how students engage with and think about literacy practices provides a compelling
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 68 argument for schools and policymakers to ask: what students’ outside school literacies can ELA
teachers extend and build upon to enhance motivation, engagement, and learning?
To connect ELA instruction to new media, the developers of the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS) require teachers to help students develop the skills to integrate knowledge
from multiple sources such as oral, visual, and new media and use these resources strategically to
meet the purposes of communication, context, and task (National Governors Association Center
for Best Practices, 2010). The CCSS recognizes Shakespeare’s plays as important cultural texts
to be taught. However, while Shakespeare’s plays have always been multimodal (e.g., integrating
words, costume, and movement), ELA instruction tends to emphasize print-based, unimodal, flat
textual practice without adequate attention to what digital modalities add to their study.
Even with the potential of multimodal literacies to enhance ELA instruction, “it is rare to
find common principles of digital creativity across the subjects in English school curriculum”
(Sefton-Green, 2013, p. 26). Indeed, the integration of social media into the classroom remains
largely unexplored (Stornaiulo, Higgs, & Hull, 2013). In fact, most high schools “are staunchly
[committed to] logocentric, book centered, and essay driven” (Hull & Nelson, 2005, p. 224) texts.
There is a disconnect between students’ use of new literacies outside the school and official
print-based literacy curriculum (Beach, 2012). Hence, while there is increasing demand for
transformed practice in ELA instruction, policies and educational standards (tests) continue to be
major obstacles to the adoption of digital tools in the classroom (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009).
The research objective of this study is to examine how two high school ELA teachers,
after an intervention, develop innovative strategies that value and support students’ engagements
and thoughts about new literacies as assets for interpreting Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. The
study is guided by one research question: (a) How do the ELA teachers scaffold and support
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 69 students to use new media-based practices and social interests as classroom resources for
multimodal interpretation of Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth?
This study is an important contribution to ELA. Students’ outside school literacies are
increasingly multiplex, influential, substantive, and highly significant and have strong
connections to and implications for the cognitive work and academic literacy practices that
learners engage in in schools (Ajayi, in press; Beach, Appleman, Hynds & Wilhelm, 2011). For
many students, traditional language-based, pencil-and-paper-bound ELA instruction is boring. If
the school intends to prepare functionally literate students — who come to classes with
enthusiasm, positive attitudes, and multiple literacies that they view as functional in their lives —
teachers need to understand how learners employ new media literacies to interpret and create
messages (Schultz & Hull, 2008). Teachers must also use the knowledge to empower students to
be both critical thinkers and creative consumers/producers of multimodal messages in/out of
school. Students have a better chance of succeeding in the U.S. if instruction validates the
situated, authentic, and everyday transnational knowledge and literacy practices they bring into
classrooms. In addition, an important role of the school is to develop students’ capacity to
function in society, including preparing them to participate in “semiotic economy where
identities, artifacts, texts, and tokens are exchanged in predictable and unpredictable ways”
(Luke 2001, p. xiii). In the semiotic economy, the balance of agency shifts to customers and
meaning makers. Hence, the school should build the students’ literacy repertoires to participate
in the semiotic economy where knowledges are produced and consumed as discourses and where
discourses are enacted as new ways of interacting and acting with new semiotic forms such as
new genres and new styles (Fairclough, 2002).
Models of Technology Integration in the ELA Classroom
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 70 A common approach to ELA instruction in U.S. schools is the Initiate-Response-Evaluation
(IRE) model. IRE is a teacher-led, three-part sequence where teachers ask questions, students
respond, and teachers evaluate students’ responses (Mehan, 1979). However, researchers are
beginning to grapple with how instruction can shift from a focus on print-based literacy to more
multimodal practices. Leander (2009) describes four models of technology integration in ELA
instruction: resistance, replacement, return, and remediation. With the resistance model,
teachers focus on teaching conventional print literacy to prepare all students to pass high-stakes
tests. In the replacement model, teachers seek to replace print-based literacy with everyday
literacies of youth by focusing on the use of the Internet, computer, etc. In the return model,
teachers integrate both new literacies and print-based literacy for teaching. For example, the
teacher asks a student to draw an image and provide a written commentary for interpreting the
meaning of the visual image.
In the remediation model, the teacher values both print and new media tools and
combines them through parallel pedagogies to teach the ways that meaning and its effects are
communicated in texts (Leander, 2009). For example, youths integrate images, videos, and
written texts for communication and thus enhance their rhetorical skills for conveying messages
(Beach, 2015). Furthermore, students transform the written text from one medium into another
while adapting it to their audiences and taking advantage of the affordances of the new medium
(Jenkins, 2011). For example, students read stories and create storyboard or graphic novels.
Puentedura (2011) provides another model of technology integration into teaching: The
Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition (SAMR) model. The Substitution
level means that students use technology to perform basic functions such as printing out
worksheets. Hence, there is no functional change in teaching and learning. The Augmentation
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 71 level means that teachers teach students to use computers to perform common tasks, including
taking online quizzes instead of using a pencil or paper. Here, technology makes a functional
improvement in teaching and learning. The Modification level refers to how students use
technology to accomplish specific learning tasks such as using virtual classrooms or wikis to
work collaboratively in small groups. There is a functional change in teaching and learning at
this level. At the Redefinition level, teachers use technology to create new tasks. For example,
students collaborate to use wikis to create products and explain the process of doing so.
Despite several studies over the last 15 years exploring technology-supported methods,
classroom practices still lack a clearly articulated pedagogical model based on the literacy
practices constituting digital/media production tools that mediate response to literature and serve
to go beyond a largely print-based curricula focus (Kalantzis & Cope, 2010). Indeed, limited
studies have explored multimodal resources for teaching Shakespeare’s plays. Kress et al (2005)
examine how teachers in the U.K. use the multimodal resources to help students interpret Romeo
and Juliet and Macbeth and show that the learners can re-textualize Macbeth “back from the
multimodality of film, image, and performance, to a written commentary” (p. 161). The present
research extends these findings by exploring the ways two teachers use a multimodal approach to
prepare students to account for how social and political forces influence the production and
consumption of meanings and texts. Jewitt (2006) examines the teaching of Shakespeare’s plays
in high schools in the U.K. and concludes that the teachers use each of the representations of the
play as “a play in a book, a film, an animated cartoon and as a series of still images” (p. 55). This
present study builds on these findings by providing details of training for the ELA teachers and
how they enact lessons to support students’ multimodal interpretation of Shakespeare’s plays.
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 72 Other studies have examined the use of multimodal instruction in ELA classrooms. In an
investigation of how teachers teach students multimodal interpretation of Shakespeare’s plays,
Franks (2003) argues that “dramatization, the bodily enactment of the text in voice, action and
interaction” (p.155) add value to students’ reading. In this study, I broaden the definition of
multimodality to include new media-based practices that the teachers use to explore the broad
range of literacy repertoires of high school students. Walsh (2010) examines how 16 educators
teach students to read and produce multimodal texts and concludes that “teachers can combine
students’ print-based literacy learning with digital communications technology effectively” (p.
226). This study builds on the findings by exploring the role of ELA teachers in helping students
develop the capacity for multimodal interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays.
The present study builds on the current literature to examine ELA teachers’ roles in using
“safe” approaches that link textual interpretation to students’ social interests and agency. Also,
this study extends the existing literature by exploring how two ELA teachers assume much more
agency in teaching multimodal interpretation of texts and how students increase their agentive
selves by drawing upon their own repertoires of literacy practices for multimodal interpretation
of Shakespeare’s plays. Finally, the study provides insights into the students’ motivations, modal
preferences, and the modes they value for interpretation of the plays.
A Social Semiotic Multimodal Theory
In this section, two theories are discussed: a theory of social semiotics to multimodality and a
theory of multimodal literacy pedagogy. The theory of social semiotics to multimodality
will
ground the analysis in articulated theories of cultural/media studies’ ethnographic perspective
that attempts to capture uses and production of texts related to audience uptake within particular
cultures (Ito et al, 2008). The theory of multimodal literacy pedagogy will frame explicitly the
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 73 teaching of the multimodal design of texts to help student analyze both print and digital texts.
From the perspective of cultural/media studies, there is a shift in the ways youth communicate
due partly to the shifting media landscape. Hence, social semiotic theories of multimodality are
concerned with innovative approaches to “representation, communication and interaction which
looks beyond language to investigate the multitude of ways we communicate: through images,
sound and music to gestures, body posture and the use of space” (Jewitt, 2009, p. 1).
Drawing upon Cope and Kalantzis (2009) and New London Group (1996), I expand the
definition of social semiotic theories to account for a multimodal approach in which ELA
teachers support the pedagogic-semiotic work of students and develop effective pedagogy. In a
multimodal approach, teachers teach students how texts are constructed, circulated, and used in
everyday life and how assumptions and ideologies are created and sustained in the society
(Bazalgette & Buckingham, 2012). The teacher helps students to account for how meaningmaking is shaped by multiple factors, including the relationship between text production and
audience response, how different audiences interpret and use media texts, and the broader
contexts (e.g., commercial and political forces) of the social production of meaning.
From the perspectives of the social semiotic theories of multimodality, integration of all
forms of communication are tools for students to make, remake, and transform meaning (Cope &
Kalantzis, 2009). For example, students on social networking media use literary remixing as an
important mode of composition through which they rewrite stories by adding personal details
with photos, videos, and graphics to create richer, multidimensional representations of their lives.
Remixing is the manipulation and integration of artifacts to create new media (Gainer & Lapp,
2010). Remixing provides youths the opportunity to engage in exploration, creativity, and
writing for authentic audiences (Jenkins et al, 2006).
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 74 Social semiotic multimodal theories have epistemological and pedagogical significance
for ELA teaching and learning as they recognize the role of students’ agency in the meaningmaking process and seek to “create a more productive, relevant, innovative, creative and even
perhaps emancipatory, pedagogy (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009, p. 175). Hence, the goal of this study
is to use the social semiotic multimodal approach to analyze and ground the analysis of what I
found working with ELA in this study, particularly how the teachers help their students to:
•
use different analytical perspectives such as learners’ subjectivities, diversity, and
linguistic and cultural repertoires as assets for transforming textual interpretations
•
develop critical thinking skills to interrogate their own and others’ perspectives and
interests and the sociopolitical contexts of production and circulation of texts
•
engage in high levels of teamwork and collaboration as learners bring different levels of
skills and expertise to complete multimodal projects
•
engage in creativity, knowledge-construction, and pursuit of personal passion
•
gain access to learning environments where knowledge production includes remixing
media content via sampling, appropriation, transformation, and repurposing (Alvermann,
2011; Mayer, 2011; New London Group, 1996).
The Context of the Schools
Freemont High School (all names are pseudonyms) had a student population of 924 students
from 9th–12th grades in 2013. The school had 682 (74%) Mexican-American students, 198
(21%) Caucasian, 22 (2%) Asian/Pacific Islander, and 20 (2%) African-American, 469 (52%)
female, and 455 (48%) male. Freemont is a title 1 school as it received supplemental funding
from the federal government to meet the needs of the 38% low-income students who were
eligible for free/reduced lunch. In its mission statement, the school states that it is committed to
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 75 providing all students equal access to high-quality education that promotes knowledge, positive
values and respect for diversity. The school is well respected in the community for the harmony
between the diverse racial groups.
Teachers Smith and Hernandez were selected to participate in this study. Earlier, I sent
letters to all high school principals in a county in Southern California (site of the study) to recruit
teachers. The principal of Freemont High School invited me to do the study. Four teachers
agreed to participate; they were further screened. The criteria that guided the final selection were
that the teachers reflected diversity in terms of ethnicity and gender. They were also interested in
a multimodal approach to teaching. Smith and Hernandez agreed to participate and signed a
consent form. Creswell (2009) describes criteria-based sampling as a purposeful selection “that
will best help the researcher understand the problem and research question” (p. 178).
Smith has an M.A degree in English and a California credential to teach ELA. Smith is a
Caucasian male teacher between the age of 36 and 40. He has taught ELA in the school for 15
years. He taught 9th grade ELA and served as a team coordinator. His active involvement in
professional activities distinguished him from other teachers. Also, his instruction emphasizes
teaching students to use diverse resources such as visual images, graphic organizers, and prior
knowledge to make meaning from texts. I observed him for this study when teaching Romeo and
Juliet. Smith had 30 students – 12 males and 18 females. He had one (3.33%) African-American,
five (16.67%) Caucasian, and 23 (76.66%) Mexican-American.
Hernandez is a Mexican-American female teacher. She has an M.A. degree in English
and a California ELA credential. She is between 45 and 50 years old and has taught ELA for 18
years. She has previously served as chairperson of ELA department. At the time of this study,
she taught in the evenings at a local university. Hernandez taught 12th grade ELA and I observed
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 76 Macbeth lessons for this study. She had 31 (17 male and 16 female) students. Her records
showed that 29 (87.88%) of the students were Mexican while 4 (12.12%) were Caucasian.
An Overview of the ELA Programs
English 9 covers all genres in U.S., British, and world literature while English 12 covers British,
American, and world literature (Littell, 1995–2008). English 9 is structured in thematic units
covering poetry, fiction, nonfiction, short stories, and drama. The teachers taught topics such as
structural features of informational texts, comprehension and analysis of grade-level-appropriate
texts, and expository critique of literary texts, including Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth.
Method
This is a collaborative qualitative study where I provided Smith and Hernandez some training in
multimodal theory and practice and then analyzed the resulting teaching. In this study, I take a
stance of remediation as an approach to parallel pedagogy in which teachers mesh together print
texts and new media to motivate and engage students in interpretation and production of texts
(Leander, 2009). The approach allows students to link ELA instruction to their everyday
multimodal literacies that are often repertoires of literacy practices they bring from
home/community to the school (Schultz & Hull, 2008).
Modeling Critical Interpretation of Texts
For this research, I suggested a training in multimodal theory and practice and the teachers
accepted. We met one hour after school (Monday – Thursday) for three weeks. To develop the
skills to teach multimodal literacies, teachers must develop an appreciation of the power of
images to convey meaning (Beach, 2015; Selfe, 2009). I modeled how the teachers could teach
students to be active readers who develop the knowledge to examine, interrogate, and critique
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 77 multimodal texts. The teachers were provided a copy of A pedagogy for liberation: Dialogues on
transforming education (Shor & Freire, 1987) to read and discuss an approach to critical literacy.
We discussed key components of critical reading such as texts (a) should relate to
students’ lives and life-world (the world as directly experienced in the subjectivity of everyday
life by individuals) and (b) are constructions which reflect the experiences, perspectives, beliefs,
and values of authors (Shor & Freire, 1987). We also had a discussion of the meta-language
(analytical grammar) for interpreting and composing multimodal texts (Kress & van Leeuwen,
2006). I defined terms including audiences/viewers and media/modes and provided a Critical
Response Protocol for the teachers to engage students in multimodal analysis (see Figure 1).
Message
Audience/
Viewer
Elements
of Analysis
Definitions and Examples
Definition: The audiences/viewers are the potential readers/viewers that the
message of a text is meant for.
1. What emotions, feelings, or thoughts do the images or multimodal texts create
in the audience?
2. What is the race, ethnicity, gender, age, language, income or religion of the
readers?
3. Which audience does the visual image or multimodal text is appealing to?
4. What audience does the visual image alienate?
5. What background knowledge is expected of audiences who will read this text?
Definition: The message is the central idea(s) the author conveys to the audience.
1. What message does the title of the image or multimodal text communicate to
readers?
2. What meaning does the image or multimodal text convey to readers?
3. How does the author use elements such as size, layout, angle, shape, icon, links,
and hyperlinks to contribute to the construction of meaning in the image or text?
4. What prior knowledge do readers have to draw upon to interpret the message of
the image
5. Is the story fair to my gender, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic background?
Visual Symbols/
Culture
Design/Composition
Media/Modes
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 78 Definition: Media are the platform in which meaning is realized: video, image,
text, audio, film, painting, website, sculpture, graph, textbook, billboard, poster,
song, TV, CD-ROMs, DVD, speech, etc.
1. Which medium or mode is most apt for the meaning/message I want to
communicate?
2. What medium/mode is used in the text?
3. Which medium/mode most appeals to my audience?
4. How I am positioning my audience by using a particular medium or mode?
5. How do the media influence your analysis and understanding of the message?
6. What writing style is used? What is the effect?
Definition: Design refers to the use of different modes and/or media to
recontextualize a body of knowledge for a particular audience or readers.
1. How does the design of the multimodal text reflect my prospective on the
intended message?
2. What are available resources to convey my message to my intended readers or
viewers?
3. What design will be most suitable for my audiences or readers?
4. What will be the impact of design on the message in the visual image or
multimodal text?
5. What catches your attention first in the visual image or multimodal text? Why?
Definition: Visual symbols are representations of ideas that people see and
recognize in a given social/cultural community (e.g., “red” signifies danger and
“green” represents freshness or lack of experience in some cultures).
1. What is the meaning of the visual symbol in the visual image?
2. What is the motif for using the visual symbol in visual image or multimodal
text?
3. How do visual symbols contribute to meaning in the text?
4. How does the visual symbol contribute to the understanding of the reader?
5. What does the visual symbol represent to you?
6. How does the visual image represent social and cultural context of the author?
Figure 1: Critical Response Protocol for Analyzing/Composing Images and Multimodal Texts
For practice, the teachers read a copy of a Magazine ad: “got milk”, with an image of
musician Sheryl Crow and used the Critical Response Protocol to interpret the story. We
discussed how modal resources such as the bedroom setting, ripped jeans, slender body build,
Brazilian Blowout hairstyle, guitar case, glass of milk, posture, physical appearance, the logo
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 79 “got milk”, written text “Rock hard”, and spatiality contributed to the message in the ad. Also,
the teachers responded to the following prompts: (a) What values are expressed in the ad? (b)
What techniques are used to persuade readers? (c) What is assumed and what is omitted in the
ad? Finally, the teachers created a counter ad based on their experience and value.
Modeling the Use of YouTube Videos
We watched YouTube videos of modern versions of Shakespeare’ plays. We discussed the
techniques the producers used to re-imagine and reinterpret the plays to make them culturally
and aesthetically appealing. They watched Julius Caesar School Project — Modern Version —
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULYRHfUIWZU) and Romeo and Juliet Modern
Version — YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DCktMMzV3Q). The teachers
identified modal resources such as modern English, rock songs, fashion, and media in the
interpretation of the plays. The teachers responded to these prompts: (a) How do new media
influence the reinterpretation of the plays? (b) How does the producer of the video make the play
relevant and meaningful to youth viewers? Furthermore, we analyzed and reflected on Lamb
(2007): “Dr. Mashup, or why educator should learn to stop worrying and love the remix”
(https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0740.pdf).
Modeling the Use of Web-Based Digital tools
An important affordance of new media is the web-based digital tools including Glogster
(http://edu.glogster.com/?ref=com)
and Webspiration (http://www.mywebspiration.com/)
which allow teachers to creatively blend and manipulate videos, audios, visuals, and print texts
for creating multimodal posters (Castek, Dalton, & Grisham, 2012). We installed the apps in the
class computers and the teachers used them to combine graphic, written text, video, audio, and
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 80 images to create posters. Also, I provided them a hyperlink to read Resources for Teachers
(Beach, n. d. at http://tinyurl.com/yhub7y8).
Data Collection
Data for the study were collected through multiple sources over 16 weeks. The approach allowed
for triangulation of findings (Creswell, 2009). The data sources included:
(a) Direct Observation: During the first three weeks of January 2012, my assistant and I attended
the teachers’ classes on Tuesdays to familiarize ourselves with the students. Smith and
Hernandez taught first and third periods, respectively. Each period lasted 51 minutes.
In February through April, each teacher was observed 11 times. The assistant (who had
been trained) and I combined note-taking with a qualitative coding process for observation
(Alvermann, O’Brien & Dillon, 1990). We observed activities such as: (i) sketches of
teaching/learning events, (ii) comments of the students/teachers, and (iii) summary of students’
collaborative group work. Using the observation categories, we wrote comments to provide
narrative descriptions of the teachers and students’ use of multimodality. The observations
allowed us to capture the multimodal approach that drove the data collection and analysis.
(b) Classroom Videotaping: During the 11th to 14th week, eight lessons (four per teacher)
were videotaped to capture the audio/visual aspects of the instruction that direct observation
could not. The videotaping is important for this study because multimodal analysis requires
multimodal data (Norris, 2004). However, in classroom-based research, researchers face ethical
issues regarding anonymity of participants as videos display the identity of teachers and students.
To gain informed consent, I provided the teachers a Video Recording Release Consent Form,
which students brought back with their parents’ signatures in the first week of this study. The
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 81 assistant and I sat at the back of the class during the instruction to minimize any obtrusion. In all,
408 minutes of instruction were videotaped.
(c) Interviews: The teachers and some students participated in interviews during week 15 and 16.
The framing of the interview questions was guided by theoretical framework that ELA teachers
should develop innovative pedagogical approaches that draw upon students’ agency (Ajayi, in
press; Mayer, 2011). The teachers participated in a tape-recorded, one-on-one, and face-to-face
semi-structured focused interview for approximately 30 minutes (see Appendix A). The
interviews took place in the teachers’ classroom during lunchtime when students were not
present.
Twenty students responded to semi-structured interview questions (see Appendix B). The
students were selected because they were available for a follow-up interview and agreed to
submit their class work for analysis. The participants consisted of eight females and seven males.
The students represented 31.74% of the 63 students in the two classes. Hence, the interview
participants were representative of the two classes. The students were interviewed in small
groups during lunchtime in the teachers’ classrooms. The small group size and setting (without
teachers) allowed research participants to feel at ease to express their viewpoints (Creswell,
2009). The interviews were later transcribed word for word by the research assistant.
(d) Research notebook: I recorded my reflexive thoughts and comments about the data I was
collecting during direct observations, videotaping sessions, and interviews in the research
notebook. I wrote comments, including how the students brought multimodal knowledge to bear
on interpretation of the plays and how their interpretations sometimes reflected the disconnect
between official construct of school literacy and students’ out-of-school literacies (Beach, 2015).
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 82 (e) Teaching/learning artifacts: The teachers provided students’ multimodal posters and modern
texts (modern texts are translations of Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth from Elizabethan English
into contemporary – plain – English). The artifacts were analyzed to understand how the students
engage in multimodal interpretations of the plays.
Transcription of Classroom Videos
I uploaded the videos to a desktop and viewed them several times before transcribing the data.
The transcription was guided by the methodological framework for multimodal interactional
analysis, an analytic method concerned with describing “what individuals express and react to in
specific situations, in which the ongoing interaction is always co-constructed” (Norris, 2006, p.
4). Multimodal transcription involves translating the audio and visual aspects into a printable
format. To transcribe the videos, I used the images to describe specific events. Each mode in a
context gave some insights into the interactional meaning.
The steps in the video transcription include, first, one interaction was uploaded as one
clip and each clip was logged. Second, I transcribed the spoken utterances of the students in
order to organize the classroom discourse. To capture a specific event, I took a series of images
that represented the event in the video and pasted it on a Word document. Descriptive notes on
each event such as what the students said and multimodal resources they used were overlaid on
the transcript. The video transcripts and observation records provided an analytic description of
the classroom data. Multimodal transcription has the potential to reshape the presentation of
academic discourse and accounts of social interaction (Bezemer & Mavers, 2011).
Data Analysis
Data were analyzed using a social semiotic multimodal approach, an analytical method which
extends the social interpretation of language and meaning to the multiplicity of modes and media
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 83 and situate textual interpretation within the broader social production of meaning (Ajayi, 2009,
2012; Bazalgette & Buckingham, 2012). The approach emphasizes the need for data analysts to
pay attention to how students convey messages in print and digital texts, and how they use
multimodal ensembles and their understandings of social contexts to interpret and construct texts
(Leander, 2009).
To analyze how the teachers taught new media activities and how the students engaged
with them, I took a series of screen pictures that represented specific events in the video and
pasted them into a Word document. Descriptive notes of each event were then overlaid on the
transcript, including the students’ dialogues, interactions, and use of multimodal resources. I
transcribed the students’ spoken utterances to organize the classroom discourse with particular
attention to how they contested or interrogated meanings, drew an image that depicted new
meanings, or situated the meaning of the plays in modern contexts to transform meaning.
The research assistant and I read carefully several times the visual images with particular
attention to how they related to the students’ social lives. In analyzing each image, we focused
on students’ choice, interest, agency, and principles guiding their textual interpretation (Bezemer
& Mavers, 2011). Also, we independently read all the transcripts line-by-line several times to
identify themes pertinent to the research questions. From the phrases, sentences and themes, we
induced categories (conceptual elements arising from recurring patterns across data) and their
properties (smaller, definable properties of categories). We then coded and categorized the data
according to the teachers’ teaching activities: YouTube, Glogster, and Webspiration. The
approach allowed us to code the activities into categories with names that simultaneously
summarized and accounted for each piece of the data (Creswell, 2009).
To increase the validity of the study, findings from one source were triangulated with
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 84 multiple sources such as the direct observation, classroom video, and researcher notebook. When
researchers corroborate evidence from multiple and different sources to support a theme, they
“are triangulating information and providing validity to their findings” (Creswell, 2013, p. 251).
For reliability, we used intercoder agreement which allows analysts to use multiple coders to
analyze transcript data. The researcher assistant and I established an 80% agreement of coding
between themes as recommended by Creswell (2013). We independently read the transcripts
several times and coded the three different kinds of activities used by the teachers: YouTube,
Glogster, and Webspiration. After coding each activity (theme), we met in my office to examine
and compare the texts that were coded. Furthermore, the coded data were sent to the teachers for
vetting and they agreed with the themes and the narrative descriptions.
Findings
The research objective of this study is to examine how two teachers employ innovative
approaches that draw upon students’ social and cultural interests as classroom resources for
multimodal interpretations of Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. Vignettes from classrooms and
quotations from interviews are provided to support specific findings.
YouTube Videos
An important role of ELA teachers is to use innovative approaches to connect instruction to
students’ everyday literacy practices. Fundamental to the design of innovative instruction is that
teachers use new media to link students’ learning to their social interests.
Smith
Smith asked his class to watch YouTube videos of modern versions of Act 1, Scene 1 of Romeo
and Juliet at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYbzkEGG13I. The students also watched
another clip of the play at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F5lDqavwQY. The teacher asked
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 85 the students to pay attention to the plot structure of the online version of the play. As the students
watched the video clips, they hyperlinked to other websites to watch related videos and read texts
and visual images. The students discussed in small groups and jotted down ideas from the videos.
In the 10th week, Smith assigned students to re-write the plot structure of Macbeth. Smith
defined plot structure as how the sequence of major events unfolded so that all the events related
to one another in a specific pattern to present the theme of a play. Smith provided the following
prompts to guide students’ work: (a) What message does the plot convey to you? (b) How do
new media influence your reinterpretation of the play? (c) Rewrite the plot to provide a modern
interpretation of Macbeth. The teacher asked the students to post their work to their weblog
accounts.
Americanizing Romeo and Juliet
Natasha, an African American student, described herself as an avid user of new media. Natasha
liked reading online materials such as YouTube videos. The teacher noted that Natasha was
“very smart” and “doing well in English-language arts.” She had a Google Nexus 5 phone with
which she took photos and videos and surfed the Internet and websites. In her weblog posting,
Natasha made Romeo and Juliet accessible to her classmates by modernizing and connecting the
plot structure to contemporary American history by writing a plot structure with literary elements
such as exposition, conflict, climax, and conflict resolution. She introduced readers to two
families (one white and one African-American) who were rich and powerful in Los Angeles
(exposition). Deandra (an African American and son of the leader of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People – NAACP) fell in love with Jessica, a daughter of the leader
of the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist neo-Nazi group (conflict). Because Deandra and
Jessica knew their families would not approve their marriage, they had a secret wedding in Las
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 86 Vegas (complication). CNN showed the wedding on the evening news. A street riot broke out in
Los Angeles (climax). The government called in the National Guard to restore law and order.
The two families decided to end hostilities (resolution).
Literary Creativity
Smith suggested that YouTube afforded him the opportunity to use hands-on approaches that
helped students to learn through investigating and discovering. Natasha stated the websites
allowed her to recreate Romeo and Juliet in social and historical context of the American society.
As a member of Generation X that Pew Research 1 describes as more liberal (than older
generations) on social issues, including greater acceptance of interracial dating and
homosexuality, Natasha based her plot on a biracial marriage. She noted that the websites
allowed her to read print texts, images, and photos that were related to Romeo and Juliet. She
argued that “the different websites broaden my understanding of plot structure in the play.”
Natasha argued that the websites allow her to “combine ideas from different websites to create
the plot structure.” For example, her story was set in Los Angeles, the characters were White and
African-American, and the story ended in racial harmony. Natasha strategically used new media
to re-create Romeo and Juliet by bringing it into the American culture.
Hernandez
Hernandez instructed her students to log onto to the website and read Macbeth at
https://www.google.com/#q=modern+version+of+macbeth. The students hyperlinked to related
websites to read about Macbeth. The students noted that the online versions of the play were
accessible because they were written in modern English and reflected modern culture. The
1
See Pew Research (2012). The Generation Gap and the 2012 Election.
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 87 teacher assigned the following prompts: (a) How do websites in this study enhance your
interpretation of Macbeth? (b) In what ways do relating Macbeth to modern society helps you to
interpret the play? (c) Rewrite the plot structure of Macbeth to show a modern interpretation.
Modernizing Macbeth
Esperanza, a Mexican-American, described herself as a “tech geek.” She spent her after-school
hours surfing websites and chatting online. Esperanza had an Apple iPhone 5s and iPad which
she carried with her all the time. She had Facebook and Twister accounts. She surf the web and
read her email, Facebook and Twitter accounts between classes. Esperanza rewrote the play and
shared her work with the class. In her narration of the plot development, she used cultural
materials and business accessories to suggest the social status of the Macbeths.
Esperanza wrote: “Macbeth was the Vice President of a multinational company – Casa
Blanca Oil. According to Esperanza, Macbeth was rich, drove Lamborghini, dressed in Guccimade business suits, and carried a laptop, iPhone, and iPad [exposition]. Esperanza connected
Lady Macbeth to modern fashion and social status of chief executive officers in the U.S.
companies: “Lady Macbeth wore a Versace-designed gown, Dior wrist watch, a Fendi handbag,
and 6-inches Stuart Weitzman diamond dream stiletto, and Cartier jewelries.” Esperanza linked
her interpretation to pop culture. She wrote: “Macbeth consulted three psychic readers on her
iPhone, who forecasted that the company president (Duncan) would die in a plane crash and that
Macbeth would become the president of the oil company. Lady Macbeth persuaded Macbeth to
frame Duncan by implicating him in a ponzi scheme [conflict].” Situating the plot structure in
the American legal system, Esperanza wrote: “Duncan was tried and convicted for fraudulent
investment by the Office of the Attorney General of the U.S. [complication].” She concluded by
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 88 saying that the shareholders found out that Macbeth framed the president in order to take his
position (climax) and that Macbeth was tried and sentenced to 150 years (resolution).
Popular Cultural Materials
Hernandez, during a follow-up interview, noted that the YouTube videos provided opportunities
to use innovative approaches to teach her students to experiment with Macbeth. She explained
that websites allowed the students to expand their understanding of the play. Esperanza stated:
“as I read across different websites I acquire more knowledge about Macbeth.” The student
noted that through reading multiple websites she learned how to use new approaches for writing
the plot structure of the play. To Americanize the play, the student linked the interpretation to
popular cultural materials such as Lamborghini to symbolize the social status of Macbeths. She
selected and organized events such as consultation with psychic readers to make the plot
structure come to live in an American classroom.
Esperanza could easily relate to the social and cultural meanings of “psychic readers” and
“forecasts” rather than “witches” and “prophecies” in Macbeth. Esperanza transported the plot
structure of Macbeth into the 21st American society and made them relevant and appealing to a
high school audience by providing dystopian representations of the ills of the corporate world
such as cultural conflicts, greed, inordinate ambition, and ruthlessness. The analysis shows that
ELA teachers can help students provide more culturally relevant interpretations of Macbeth by
connecting instruction to contemporary forms of symbolic manipulation of new media tools.
Glogster
Glogster allows teachers to tap into the wide-ranging new media literacies that students acquire
through outside school to creatively manipulate and manipulate ideas from multiple sources.
Smith
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 89 Smith defined multimodal composition as when an author integrated modal resources in a text.
He introduced the class to Glogster (http://edu.glogster.com/?ref=com). Using a handout from
the Internet (Glogster poster tutorial), Smith explained and modeled how the students could use
the web app to create multimodal posters. Smith assigned the students to read Romeo and Juliet,
watch video clips, and “read” visual images on websites. For a culminating task, the teacher
asked students to: (a) choose specific web-based tools for your work, (b) design a poster to
represent a multimodal interpretation of a scene in Romeo and Juliet, (c) how does the design
impact your interpretation, and (d) how does the web-based tools influence your interpretation?
A Multimodal Poster
Group A worked on how to create a multimodal poster of Act IV, Scene 1 (where Friar
Lawrence presented a plan to give Juliet a distilling liquor). While some students interpreted
Friar Lawrence’s plan as too hasty and irrational, others saw Juliet as courageous and brave.
Figure 2: Friar Lawrence Plan: is it hasty or shows Juliet as Courageous?
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 90 The group explained that Figure 2 started the events that led to a reconciliation between
the feuding families in the play. Silvia, Mexican-American, belongs to the App Generation; that
is, a new generation of young people who have moved the issues of self-representation,
creativity, social interaction, and identity construction into the world of digital apps (Gardner &
Davis, 2013). Silvia is an ardent user of apps; she downloaded many apps into her iPhone and
laptop, including iTune, Facebook, YouTube, and flickr for socialization. The student stated that
Juliet’s action represented the clash between the young protagonists who acted bravely and the
old tradition with the civil desire for social order and status quo. The student noted that Glogster
allowed students to select a scene, brainstorm and generate ideas to explain the scene, compose a
written text, log on to Glogster, click on draw tab to draw, click on text tab to add title, click on
text tab to add a written text, and click on save or publish tab to save or publish their posters.
Rather than only describing her interpretation, Silvia used Glogster to add an image to the verbal
text to illustrate her interpretation to her classmates.
Remix
Silvia explained that her group used Glogster to draw Friar Lawrence as an elderly priest in a
long robe. A look at Figure 2 indicated that the students “remixed” ideas from multiple sources,
including the original texts, modern texts, video clips, audio books, group discussions, and
cultural knowledge. Figure 2 showed Friar Lawrence with a long, white beard like many
orthodox Catholic priests, a view of priests the students might have developed from home and
TV, as the community members are mostly Catholics. They also drew an image of Juliet with a
long, brunette hairstyle and related her to their own sense of fashion. Silvia noted that she
consciously blended her personal narratives with other materials from other sources to draw
Figure 2 and create a link between her Mexican-American background and Romeo and Juliet.
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 91 Hernandez
Hernandez taught her students to use Glogster to create multimodal posters. The teacher defined
“characterization” as details about a character’s traits that an author provides, including his/her
appearance and personality that make the character comes alive for readers. The teacher noted
that playwrights usually indicated the weaknesses in a character to make him/her more humane
so that the audience can relate or identify with the character. The teacher assigned the students to
(a) decide on an interpretation that will appeal to an audience, (b) select the most apt medium or
mode for the interpretation, and (c) represent the character of Macbeth in a poster.
Blending Words with Images
The students worked in groups to design multimodal posters of the charater of Macbeth. The
students identified particular scenes, conflicts, actions, thoughts, and motivations that contributed
to the development of Macbeth’s character. They wrote the character traits they wanted to reflect
in the multimodal poster: brave soldier, powerful, ambition, bravery, and great physical
appearance. The students decided on the combination of modes that would be apt for the poster.
The group used Glogster to write a text. The students upload a visual image (Figure 3) to
illustrate their interpretation so as to make it clear to their classmates.
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 92 Figure 3: A Multimodal Poster of the Charater of Macbeth
During an interview, the students explained that Glogster allowed them to integrate
written texts and images to present their interpretation of Macbeth. Julio, an ardent reader of
action hero movies, said he liked to read entertainments which portray action and adventure. The
student argued that action heroes usually show toughness, strength, and bravery. He noted that
such people are always very likeable to the audience. The blend of language and visual image in
Figure 3 shows that the students have a complex interpretation of the character of Macbeth. The
student connected Macbeth to his ethnic identity to draw a Mexican-American-looking man
(rather than Caucasian, the racial identity of Shakespeare’s Macbeth).
Figure 3 showed Macbeth’s masculinity, broad shoulders, big biceps, big muscle, and
tattoos (physical characteristics that were not present in the video clips of the play) to suggest
physical power and ruggedness associated with heroic characters in Hollywood action hero
movies. The students embedded such physical character traits to create an inspiriational figure
like Hollywood’s action characters. The student connected his representation to Hollywood
action characters which fulfill cultural functions by affirming and maintaining the conventions of
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 93 social construction of identity, fashion, gender, and economic/social status in American society.
Using Glogster to create multimodal posters shows that the literary interpretation of texts can
ensure that high school students have access to the literacy knowledge and skills required to
make considered decisions in designing meaning. Hence, ELA teachers can encourage students
to draw upon their multimodal literacies that allow them to integrate different communication
modes to make meaning, separately and together.
Webspirationi
The affordances of Webspiration allow teachers and students to combine language and apps to
interpret Shakespeare plays. Webspiration provides multimedia opportunities for students to
analyze, interpret, and extend discussions of literary texts. The web app allows students to
organize their interpretations and provide visual illustration of written commentaries.
Hernandez
Hernandez introduced his students to Webspiration. Smith created a graphic organizer template
that the students could modify to suit what they were doing. The teacher explained that students
must integrate at least two modes such as visual images, written texts, video, and/or hyperlink.
The teacher assigned the students to (a) design a story web to explain Macbeth, (b) present one
or two key moments in the play, and (c) recreate the play in modern times and use contemporary
language.
Multimodal Story Web
Student worked in small groups to create a story web. They brainstormed, identified and
summarizes two key moments in the play. They discussed how to represent Macbeth in a modern
setting, identified important characters to use in their narrative, and the best way to organize their
story. The students shared a multimodal story web (Figure 4) with the class.
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 94 Figure 4: A Multimodal Story Web of Two Key Moments in Macbeth
A group of students drew Figure 4 to show a summary of two important events in
Macbeth. The image in the first box showed three women wearing blonde, black or red dress,
and red lipstick while one woman had a hat and a Polaroid glasses. In words below the image,
the students provided a verbal explanation: the moment the three psychic readers made their
prediction. In the second box on top, the students explained the second important event. Below
the box, the students drew an image of two men as a visual illustration of the moment Macbeth
and Banquo hatched a plan to implicate Duncan in a ponzi scheme.
Michelle (Caucasian) presented her group’s work to the class. She had an iPhone that she
carried with her all the time. She had downloaded and installed multiple apps into her iPhone
including WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter. Michelle explained that she enjoyed using the
Webspiration because it had visual thinking and learning tools that helped her to be creative and
imaginative in summarizing the important events in Macbeth. She also argued that the web app
allowed her to combine language and visuals to make her presentation appealing to her
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 95 classmates. Michelle further noted: “I am happy that I get to use apps. I can bring what I like to
do in my free time to the classroom for learning.”
Discussion
The results show that the ELA teachers use innovative approaches to create possibilities for the
students to assume much more agency in using multimodal resources for interpretation of the
plays. The two ELA teachers become designers of innovative approaches that draw on a variety
of digitally accessible information to link multimodal and media interpretation to the students’
social interests, capabilities and proclivities. Hence, a crucial role of ELA teachers is to “function
as designers of precisely tailored learning environments, each shaping the learner’s path to an
epistemological proximity to the curriculum of the school through the teacher-designer’s
understanding of the learner’s principles” (Kress, 2013, p. 126).
ELA teachers can create opportunities for students to access texts using YouTube videos
and distributed forms of knowledge. YouTube videos have the potential to show students how to
look at edgy, contemporary social approaches to teaching and representing Shakespeare’s plays.
For example, in their modern adaptation of the plays, the participants move the characters from
supernatural world of the medieval period to the 21st century. The students modernize and
Americanize the plays to reflect the features of sociopolitical landscape of the U.S.: AfricanAmerican, Mexican-American, NAACP, CNN, biracialism, psychic readers, designer wears, and
vice president. The modern adaptation transports the central theme, plot, and characters in
Macbeth into the 21st American society and makes them appealing to a youthful audience by
providing dystopian representations of the ills of the corporate world such as the cultural
conflicts, including greed, inordinate ambition, and ruthlessness.
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 96 By using a culturally significant tool such as YouTube, the teachers empower the
students to incorporate new elements into Shakespeare’ plays for repurposing and making
remixes aesthetically appealing to their classmates. New media appeal to youth because they
encourage experimentations, identities, and textual interpretations (Alvermann, 2011; Mayer,
2011). Learning from online videos requires the students to acquire the skills to choose
appropriate search engines, locate relevant sites, hyperlink to relevant sites, and synthesize
information from multiple sources to produce new knowledge. Hence, it is important that
teachers teach students how to “read” online cultural texts or videos and understand the
sociocultural and political contexts in which they are produced. Indeed, students’ knowledge and
abilities to network are now a core social skill and cultural competency that ELA teachers can
leverage for student learning (Jenkins et al, 2006; Mayer, 2011).
A crucial aspect of the ELA teachers’ innovative approaches is the recognition of literary
tools that new media such as apps afford students. Glogster offers important literary practices
such as multimodality, publishing, and knowledge-sharing with classmates. Hence, ELA teachers
“need to pay attention to, and come to value, the multiple ways in which students compose and
communicate meaning, the exciting hybrid, multimodal texts they create – in both nondigital and
digital environmnets – to meet their own needs in a changing world” (Selfe, 2009, p. 642). The
students used Glogster to provide written comments and upload visual images to further illustrate
their interpretation the plays to an authentic audience (Castek, Dalton, & Grisham, 2012).
The affordances of Glogster in ELA suggest that as teachers think about multiple ways to
use technology to transform student learning, they “must also consider how these apps mediate
students’ self-perceptions and sense of agency” (Castek & Beach, 2013, p. 555). The findings in
this study show that the students’s new media literacy skills are being devloped not just within
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 97 the classroom, but in their real-lives/Third Spaces, too. “Third Spaces” is the combination of
worlds that students inhabit, including outside school (first space) and in-school (second space)
that are blended to create a third space in which their repertoires of practice from the first and
second spaces inform each other to extend their learning (Gutiérrez, 2008). Rather than
marginalizing students’ outside school literacy knowledge and proclivities, ELA teachers should
embrace them as resources for teaching and learning.
Implications and Conclusion
The findings indicate that the role of ELA teachers in a contemporary classroom is to recognize
high school students’ agency that they use for literacy practices. The findings suggest that after
the teachers received some training in multimodal theory and practice, they taught students to
use new media and modern social approaches to interpret Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. The
teachers increase their agency by using a multimodal approach to help students interpret the
plays. The findings have important implications for policymakers, schools, teachers, and
researchers.
Policymakers
The findings in this study shows that a multimodal pedagogy allows teachers to help students use
multiple interpretative perspectives and different modalities for reading complex texts such as
Shakespeare’s plays. The findings suggest that one-size-fits-all approach to ELA instruction has
become obsolete and irrelevant to the knowledge and skills that students need to participate in
today’s global knowledge economy, education, and everyday literacy practices (Jewitt, 2013).
Hence, policymakers may have to rethink policies and educational standards (e.g., tests) that
prioritize the traditional vertical, print-centric, hierarchical top-down approaches to ELA
instruction. What will be beneficial to students is the policy that recognizes the shifting world
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 98 where knowledge is disperse, horizontal, more open, and participatory and allow teachers to
incorporate multimodal approaches that provide exposure to “the cosmopolitan experience of
cultural epistemological differences so integral to the contemporary world” (Cope & Kalantzis,
2009, p. 188). A multimodal approach takes as the starting point for learning the students’ value
for how they engage with and think about their own literacies and promotes alternative forms of
engagement with their literacy worlds, interests, experiences, motivations, and identities.
High Schools
There is a need for schools to provide continuing professional development (similar to the
intervention in this study) to help ELA teachers acquire the knowledge and skills to teach
multimodal theories and practices. In addition, schools should ensure that ELA teachers and
students have access to networked computers and websites that show contemporary approaches
to textual interpretation such as Shakespeare steampunk, and Fanfiction and subscribe to relevant
web apps such as Glogster, Webspiration, Visio for the PC, Phoster, Pinterest, Quark DesignPad,
iFontmaker, Postcrosing, LivingSocial, etc.
ELA Teachers
ELA teachers may need to learn more about new media knowledge that students bring to the
classroom. Gardner and Davis (2013) argue, “There can be little doubt that apps and digital
media technologies have altered the landscape of imaginative expression. They’ve affected
virtually every facet of the creative process, encompassing who can be a creator, what can be
created, and how creations come into being and find an audience” (p. 122). Teachers can
leverage students’ new media literacies to provide “safe” approaches that bridge the gap between
learners’ interests and the traditional, standards-based curricula of market-oriented economy.
ELA Researchers
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 99 The field of multimodal theories and practices is still developing (Jewitt, 2013). Hence, there is a
need for more research to understand students’ motivations for using different modes and media
for literacy practices in ways that their agency – proclivity, repertoires of practice and resources
– is at the center of instruction. Also, there is a need for more research on how the affordances of
specific apps can be integrated into ELA classrooms in ways that can best enhance students’
learning.
Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 100 References
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Journal of Literacy and Technology Volume 16, Number 1: May 2015 ISSN: 1535-­‐0975 106 Appendix A: Interview Questions for the Teachers
1. In what ways, if any, do the websites provide you innovative approaches to teach in this class?
2. How do the websites equip you, if any, to help your students expand their interpretation of the
play?
3. How do the approaches in this course help you, if any, link instruction to your students’
interests and resources?
4. In what ways, if any, do the approaches help you draw upon literacies that students bring from
home/community?
5. How do the approaches, if any, allow you to capture students’ enthusiasm and motivation?
6. What are the advantages (if any) of teaching students to integrate modes/media to interpret
Shakespeare’s plays?
7. What constraints do you face in using multimodal and media resources to teach in this course?
8. What professional development/training do you like the school to provide to help you
integrate modal/media resources into ELA instruction?
9. Comment on any aspects of the approaches you use in this course.
Appendix B: Interview Questions for the Students
1. In what ways, if any, do the websites help you recreate the play?
2. In what ways, if any, do the websites you visited contribute to your interpretation of the play?
3. How do approaches in this course help you, if any, connect interpretation of Shakespeare’s
play into your interests?
4. Why did you draw this poster? What is the message of it?
5. In what ways, if any, do the approaches make literary interpretation interesting for you?
6. How do the approaches in this course, if any, enhance your creativity and imagination?
7. What kind of literary skills and knowledge, if any, do the apps help you acquire?
8. How do the apps, if any, help you present your interpretation of the play to your classmates?
9. Comment on any aspects of instruction in this class.